1950: William Donald Schaefer, a graduate of University of Baltimore law school, opens downtown law practice. Runs unsuccessfully for the House of Delegates from West Baltimore.
1954: Fails again to win seat in House of Delegates.
1955: Wins campaign for Baltimore City Council on ticket organized by political kingpin Irvin Kovens, who would become one of Mr. Schaefer's closest friends.
1967: Runs citywide and is elected City Council president, serving with Mayor Thomas J. D'Alesandro III.
1968: Helped direct National Guard, called out to quell riots after the assassination of the Rev. Martin Luther King.
1970: Champions first Baltimore City Fair, despite fears of street violence. The event is later cited as a milestone in the city's recovery from the riots.
1971: Wins the Democratic primary for mayor with 56 percent of the vote, against three candidates. He wins easily in the general election.
1974: During national energy crisis, as Americans are urged to keep thermostats down, a reporter writes that the temperature in City Hall is 74 degrees. Next day, Mr. Schaefer turns off the heat. "Does it seem like 75 degrees now?" he chortles as reporters shiver through a press conference.
1975: Re-elected mayor with slogan: "Mayor Schaefer: Worth Repeating."
1976: Begins "Baltimore's Best" program, a boosterism project meant to reward unsung heroes in the effort to improve city life.
1978: Defeats opponents of Harborplace in a referendum.
1979: A snowstorm buries Baltimore. Looting breaks out in West Baltimore. Mayor Schaefer imposes a 7 p.m. curfew. The National Guard is called in.
1979: Baltimore Convention Center opens.
1979: Re-elected to third term.
1980: Harborplace opens to national raves. Mr. Schaefer revels in the praise heaped on the Inner Harbor, including a Time magazine cover story that declares "Cities Are Fun" and features Baltimore's revitalization efforts.
January 1981: Declares that the new aquarium under construction at the Inner Harbor is progressing well. If it doesn't open on time, he announces, he'll "jump in the tank."
March 1981: With President Reagan cutting the federal budget, Mr. Schaefer goes to Washington to plead for continued aid to cities. When legislators don't respond sympathetically, Schaefer says, "I'm so angry I can't see."
1981: Calls in business executives and persuades them to begin "Blue Chip-In," a program that raises $400,000 privately in its first year to fill gaps caused by Reagan budget cuts.
July 1981: Before network television cameras, Mr. Schaefer -- dressed in an old-time bathing costume and carrying an inflatable duck -- steps into the National Aquarium's seal pool.
January, 1982: When snow cancels a presidential tour of Baltimore, Schaefer and aides drive to the White House to make pitch for urban enterprise zones. Schaefer wears a Baltimore's Best tie and gives the horse-riding Ronald Reagan a yellow-and-black Baltimore's Best horse blanket.
1982: Columnist George Will writes: "Schaefer embodies his community more completely than even Richard Daley or Fiorella LaGuardia embodied Chicago and New York."
November 1983: Re-elected mayor, easily holding off a challenge in the primary from former Baltimore Circuit Court Judge William H. Murphy Jr. In the general election, Mr. Schaefer wins with 93 percent of the vote.
1984: In an article that captures Mr. Schaefer's manic management style, Esquire magazine runs a cover story declaring Baltimore's leader "the best mayor in America." Staff, thrilled by the headline, are later chagrined to find the article depicts the mayor as a nudge who patrols alleys for trash.
1984: The Baltimore Metro opens.
March 1984: Robery Irsay calls Mayflower movers and packs up Baltimore's Colts off to Indianapolis.
1985: Appoints himself "supreme commander" and launches an "assault on trash," naming four top aides generals in a military-style effort to clean up the city. City Hall reporters are called "war correspondents visiting the front."
May 1986: With longtime companion Hilda Mae Snoops at his side, Mr. Schaefer stands on the porch of his Edgewood Street rowhouse and declares his candidacy for governor.
Summer 1986: Explains his Do-It-Now philosophy at an Ellicott City campaign stop: "Get it done. Do it now. You know why? You are all here right now. It has to be nice for you who are here right now. Not 10 years from now. You may not be here. It has to be nice, right now."
July 1986: In a campaign interview, Mr. Schaefer calls his Democratic opponent, Attorney General Stephen Sachs, a "dumb a--," among other things. Mr. Schaefer later claims he never said it. Told that the reporter had recorded the interview, Mr. Schaefer says: "I said it. But it was off the record."
September 1986: Defeats Mr. Sachs in the Democratic primary for governor.
November 1986: With 82% of the vote, he beats a little-known Republican to win the governorship. It is the biggest margin of victory for any governor elected that day.
January 1987: The day before his inauguration in Annapolis, Mr. Schaefer takes a farewell tour of the city and then, at Harborplace, climbs inside a box and is raised to the deck of a ship. He emerges in a white naval uniform. The box is labeled "Baltimore's Gift to Maryland."
1987: Wins legislature's approval for the construction of two new stadiums in Baltimore.
January 1990: Hits his high-water mark for popularity as governor. A Mason-Dixon poll shows 23 percent of Marylanders think he has done an excellent job, with an overall approval rating of 68 percent.
September 1990: Wins the Democratic primary with 77 percent of the vote against a little-known gun-rights advocate. He is said to be "on a rampage" because almost a quarter of the voters rejected him.
November 1990: Re-elected with 59.6 percent of the vote. The next day he calls his victory over a little-known Republican "amazing" and "decisive." But over the next few months he settles into a funk, angry at losing more than half the state's counties.
February 1991: At a State House ceremony, Mr. Schaefer asks two Shore delegates: "How's that s--- house of an Eastern Shore?" The Eastern Shore delegation is outraged, as are many Shore residents. After a week of stonewalling, the governor apologizes, insisting that his comment was "a joke."
April 1991: A tabloid newspaper, The Star, calls Mr. Schaefer "the wackiest governor in America" and illustrates it with a photograph of him jumping into the seal pool. The governor vows not to wear any more funny hats.
December 1991: Mr. Schaefer sends a Christmas card to an Eastern Shore woman, enclosing photographs of her participating in a State House protest. "I felt a little threatened," she says.
March 1992: The Washington Post reports that the canine unit of the state police paid $600 to neuter and house-train the aging and obese Willie, Governor Schaefer's pet mutt. Mr. Schaefer's press secretary, Frank Traynor, claims the animal is being trained to protect the governor.
April 1992: The General Assembly passes a package of $500 million in tax increases to bail the state out of its budget crisis.
May 1992: The first leg of the Central Light Rail System opens, connecting Timonium and Camden Yards.
May 1992: Governor Schaefer names his top bodyguard, Larry W. Tolliver, as interim superintendent of the state police.
July 1992: At the Democratic National Convention, Mr. Schaefer arrives late and leaves early. He and the party chairman, Nathan Landow, argue over who would announce the Maryland vote.
October 1992: Flies to Town and Country, Mo., to endorse President Bush for re-election. "What am I doing here?" the lifelong Democrat wonders aloud. State Democrats are outraged.
December 1992: Breaks his 19-month-old pledge not to wear funny hats, after Santa Claus gives him a long red hat with a blinking light at the end at a news conference.
January 1993: Wins $4 playing the state's Keno lottery game during its first day of operation statewide.
March 1993: Hits bottom in popularity. A Mason-Dixon poll shows just 1 percent of state residents think Mr. Schaefer is doing an excellent job. His overall approval rating sinks to 16 percent. Fifty percent of state residents give him a "poor" rating.
April 1993: Fires state insurance Commissioner John A. Donaho, who for months had tried to extend state controls on Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Maryland.
April 1993: Makes a surprise visit to the floor of the House of Delegates, where he smiles and shakes hands. Later, he asks the House Judiciary Committee to approve one of his bills, "please." Legislators are startled.
October 1993: Saying state taxpayers spend nearly $2.3 million a year on salary and perks for Mr. Schaefer, Money magazine rates him "the most pampered governor in America."
December 1993: Fires lottery director William F. Rochford after he tells a reporter that the governor ordered him to inflate revenue estimates for the new Keno game.
January 1994: Accompanies 500 state troopers as they raid 24 strip clubs along The Block. Scores of suspects are arrested, but the operation is widely criticized and many charges are later dropped.
May 1994: Mr. Schaefer decides not to intervene in the execution of convicted killer John F. Thanos. Thanos becomes the first person put to death in Maryland in 33 years.
October 1994: Mr. Schaefer leaves on a two-week trade mission to the Far East.
October 1994: Friends of the governor say they plan to raise $2.5 million to endow the William Donald Schaefer Chair in Public Policy, to be shared by the University of Maryland and the Johns Hopkins University. It's first occupant? Mr. Schaefer.
December 1994: Mr. Schaefer becomes the first governor in Maryland history to prepare a state spending plan for the coming year while in his last months in office.
January 1995: William Donald Schaefer leaves elected office after nearly 40 years to return to private life.